The present invention relates generally to an electronic communication device and more specifically to a recipient device notification alert system adjustable in response to a sender device.
With the growth of wireless devices, there is a concurrent growth in providing adaptability and improved ease of use and interactivity. The wireless device may be any device capable of transmitting and/or receiving communication from a wireless or non-wireless device or network, a server or other communication network, including, but not limited to, a cellular phone, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a pager, a smart phone, or any other suitable device as recognized by one having ordinary skill in the art.
As wireless devices become more integral for communication, there also exists a growth in the ability for the wireless device to provide improved forms of notification to an end user. With the growth of wireless devices, there is a growth in the amount of usage of the device, therefore various techniques may be employed to notify a user of an incoming call, message or notification. For example, currently wireless devices allow for a variety of different ring tones, a vibration alert, flashing light notification, a caller identification alert.
Moreover, wireless devices allow for further personalization such as allowing a specific ring tone to be specific to a particular incoming message from another wireless device. For example, a wireless device may have a standard beeping ring tone for normal incoming messages, but a user may set a specific musical ring tone to designate a particular incoming call, such as a friend, relative, co-worker.
Wireless devices currently include further personalization, such as the above-mentioned ring tones, and also provide for a larger array of applications. With the growth of messaging systems, such as the MMS, SMS and EMS systems, wireless devices can provide more than straight two-way communication, but also may become a portal for time-sensitive information. Therefore, it becomes more difficult for an end user to filter the incoming messages and determine message importance.
Current wireless devices fail to provide for specific high priority communications, wherein the sending device determines the priority. For example, a supervisor may be attempting to contact a co-worker regarding an emergency at work. Upon receipt of the notification, the co-worker cannot immediately determine if the communication is urgent, therefore the co-worker must either take time to engage to device to determine the caller and the communication priority or choose to ignore the incoming communication request.
It is also recognized that the co-worker may set an internal setting to give the communication device a supervisor-specific notification, such as a specific ring tone. Although, in the event of an emergency, an incoming communication bears the same level of priority as all other incoming communications from the supervisor, from the perspective of the recipient communication device. Once again, the co-worker can only immediately determine the originator of the incoming communication, but cannot determine an incoming communication priority level. As such, a sender device cannot provide high priority notification commands to a recipient device.